Posted by Mike Mitchell at 3 May , 2010
Once a Day Self Improvement
We all have areas in our lives which we want to improve. These may be small things that annoy and frustrate us about ourselves or major obstacles to overcome in our personal life and professional careers. Can you identify a few of those areas in your life? What are you doing to make improvements? The key to all improvement is making a commitment, designing a plan (dividing the major areas into smaller tasks), and allocating a few minutes once a day.
Think of the novice high jumper on a track and field team. The athlete doesn’t start by setting the bar at six feet or higher. As any coach knows, the bar must be set at the right height to require effort to clear the bar but establish an attainable goal. As the jumper succeeds with the lower bars, he gains confidence to progress to more difficult heights. Setting the bar at an unrealistic height initially would doom the beginner to constant failure and frustration. Like a young athlete, we must have self improvement goals that require effort but are attainable.
Target Areas for Self Improvement:
• Time management (making the best use of every moment)
• Organization of the environment (desk, office, home, etc)
• Organization of the mind (making decisions, creating reports, delegating tasks, etc)
• Public speaking (universally the biggest fear of almost everyone)
• Communication (with executives, peers, staff and customers)
• Procrastination (intentional delay of beginning or completing a task)
We can all improve those negative characteristics or situations if we do a little improvement every day. For instance, if your cluttered desk and office creates a negative and unprofessional impression on your staff and visitors, create an action plan of daily tasks to improve the appearance (and functionality).
Create an Action Plan:
• Monday – (30 min) – clean out and organize top left desk drawer
• Tuesday – (45 min) – sort magazines on credenza/cut out relevant articles/throw away others
• Wednesday – (30 min) – clean and organize top right desk drawer
• Thursday – (30 min) – sort and file paperwork on top of desk (in newly organized drawers!)
• Friday – (15 min) – dust desk, chairs, and picture frames/clean glass of pictures
When one of your daily tasks has been completed, resist the urge to start the next one even if you have not used the full amount of time allocated. Since you have put a realistic daily plan in place, stick to it. If you start a new task and don’t finish it, you could become frustrated with an incomplete task. This is where your daily commitment is most important. The objective of Once a Day Self Improvement is to produce ongoing and observable results with minimal impact on your daily work schedule.
Remember that a commitment, a plan, and a little time each day can produce real results more quickly than you might imagine. As you improve in one of your target areas, you will gain confidence and look forward to ‘raising the bar’ in other target areas. Once you’ve mastered this daily technique of self improvement for your target areas, share it with your co-workers.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 19 April , 2010
The Secret to Becoming an Excellent Employee
Whether you’re a department manager, division director, or company CEO, you’re still an employee. Are you and excellent employee, inspiring and motivating your staff to achieve excellence in all that they do? What is the secret to becoming an excellent employee?
The secret to exemplifying excellence in your work life is developing excellence in these four key areas; attitude, behavior, communications, and competence.
Attitude
• Initiative – be proactive, look for tasks that need to be done and do them
• Enthusiasm – co-workers will respond to your upbeat, positive and cheerful energy
• Commitment – doing the job better than expected, loyalty to your staff and hospital
Behavior
• Punctual – get to work and meetings on time, be aware of deadlines
• Considerate – treat other employees like you want to be treated
• Appearance – dress appropriately for your position, be neat, clean and well groomed
Communications
• Listening – misunderstanding instructions causes most errors in the workplace
• Speaking – deliver clear and concise instructions, don’t talk too much
• Writing – use proper grammar and sentence structure in your emails and memos
Competence
• Know your job – know all the aspects of your responsibilities (including paperwork)
• Work hard – lead the way, show your staff, peers and superiors that you can do it
• Be diligent – complete assigned tasks on time and better than expected
Dr. Robb Thompson, speaker, educator, and author of Excellence in the Workplace, puts excellence in perspective this way, “A person of excellence refuses to adopt a ‘just good enough’ attitude; instead he presses on toward excellence when others say, “That’s good enough.”
The secret of becoming an excellent employee is not really a secret but a personal commitment tempered with self-awareness, common sense, and workplace savvy. The ‘secret’ is available to every employee who is willing and motivated to learn, develop and exceed expectations.
Strive for excellence in all that you do and say. Set the standard for your co-workers. You will not only improve yourself but will become a strong leader and excellent example for your staff and organization.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 5 April , 2010
Create a Greenhouse to Grow Your Employees
Does your organization provide employees with opportunities for personal development? Terri Kabachnick, author of I Quit, But Forgot to Tell You, shares the results of a survey of 1400 executives, managers and associates: 76% would switch jobs for less money in order to work for a company that offers opportunities for personal development and flexibility. Do you know how many of your employees feel the same way?
To create a greenhouse to grow employees requires a financial investment by the company. Ms. Kabachnick relates this fact based on an Accenture/Deloitte study: The typical U.S. company spends 50 times more to hire a $100K worker than it will invest in annual training after he joins the company.
OK, so maybe that’s not the typical employee’s salary but the point is well made: it costs more to hire a new employee than to train (and retain) a current employee. The next logical questions are who to train and how to train them.
Deciding Who Gets Development Opportunities
My observations, research, and experience leads me to the conclusion that there three categories of employees:
• Shining Stars – employees with a can-do attitude who take initiative, and produces excellent results.
• Rising Stars – employees who have the potential to be Shining Stars but not there yet.
• Falling Stars – employees who just go through the motions, complain frequently, and not are very thorough or conscientious in completing their tasks.
Now ask yourself: Which category of employee would make the greatest negative impact on your department if they left your company? Obviously, the Shining Stars are the workers you want to keep. They are the ones who should be rewarded with opportunities for development. Now the question is: How can you provide opportunities with little or no training budget.
Two Development Options: Coaching and Training
Coaching
This is a low cost/high involvement option you should explore. Coaching is an ongoing activity where the coach (manager) works with the employees to provide opportunities to stretch their skills and expand their experience. Some examples of this development coaching are:
• Discuss employee goals and interests to find opportunities to promote development.
• Look for special projects to give the Shining Star a chance to learn new skills.
• Incorporate the Shining Star into some if your activities to increase his visibility and exposure to new people and network of contacts.
Training
Training is a one-time event with specific time duration and measurable results. For instance, in I.T. training is usually equated with technical skills but soft-skills must be included as well. Some low cost or nominal cost training opportunities are:
• Self Study Courses – CompTIA is a good technical resource for self-study courses.
• Group Study – use the self-study resources to form a group training session.
• Local colleges – usually this option is more expensive but includes instructor expertise.
• One day Seminars – many training companies offer seminars covering communication skills, customer service, time management, and more for around $200 per person.
I know one PC repair person who wanted more knowledge than the on-the-job training he had received. He bought the CompTIA A+ certification manual for less than $100 and studied for 6 months. He passed the test with no problem. It can be done!
As technological advances become such common occurrences, the demand for technical talent with great soft-skills will continue to increase. Don’t find yourself paying the high cost of hiring new employees. With a little effort and encouragement on your part, your Rising Stars can develop into Shining Stars and your Shining Stars might remain loyal fans of both you and your company.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 15 March , 2010
How to Create a Professional Voice Mail Greeting
Creating a proper voice mail greeting may seem like a small detail, but it tells your callers a lot about you. Perception is very important in establishing rapport and maintaining relationships. When you record an informative voice mail greeting and use call forwarding properly, your callers will perceive that you are considerate of their time, conscientious in your responsibilities, and a care about your professional image.
Your Vocal Presentation
It’s always a challenge to provide just the right amount of relevant information within a brief voice mail greeting. I’ve heard too many talkative greetings that gave irrelevant Information which lasted over 60 seconds. Many more greetings use the lazy factory default “record at the tone” greeting. A good guideline is to keep your greeting between 5 – 15 seconds.
Speed of delivery and diction are also important. Speaking too fast, poor pronunciation, and awkward word choices can cause misunderstanding and confusion for the caller. Speaking too slowly can also frustrate your caller.
Achieving the right balance of the following elements will create an effective voice mail greeting.
The keys to a professional and informative greeting are:
• Select the right words
• Use the right inflection in your voice
• Give only relevant information to your callers
• Speak in a cheerful and uplifting manner
When you are out of the office or on vacation, your greeting should tell callers:
• That you are out of the office, not what you are doing
• The date that you will return to your office (or the hour if you’re away only briefly)
• When you will return caller’s message (if possible)
• A contact for urgent requests (repeat the name and telephone number twice)
Consider the type of call forwarding you use:
• Forwarding when your telephone is busy (call immediately goes to voice mail)
• Forwarding when you don’t answer (call rings three times then goes to voice mail)
• Forwarding when you don’t want to be disturbed (call immediately goes to voice mail)
• Forwarding when you are out of the office for any reason or even just away from your desk (call goes immediately to voice mail)
Advantages of a professional voice mail greeting and appropriate call forwarding:
• It decreases the duration of a call showing consideration for your callers
• It reduces frustration for your callers
• It provides useful information to your callers
• It creates a professional image for you and your company
There is no better way of conveying a professional image with sincere personal touch than with an effective voice mail greeting.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 1 March , 2010
Using Social Media to Display Your Technical Expertise
Isn’t the new world of technology exciting? You have new challenges every day. It’s a continuous learning curve. Your knowledge has increased every month since you first stepped into the telecom arena. You might even consider yourself an expert in a particular area. Have you ever felt a burning desire to demonstrate your level of technical expertise to your peers, your organization, or even the world?
With the phenomenal growth of easy to use Web 2.0 applications, you have a plethora of opportunities to display your expertise across a variety of social media venues. Although Twitter and Facebook are high profile social networking sites, there are many less well-known sites with question and answer technical forums. These are the perfect vehicles to share your expertise.
How to Display Your Expertise
- Answering questions on forums asked by other technical, and not so technical, people.
- Start a telecom blog focusing on your specific area of expertise.
- Contribute articles or white papers to telecom sites that solicit information.
Where to Displaying Your Expertise
There are many sites with forums specifically geared toward technically oriented people. Most sites require you to register as a forum member before allowing you to ask a question or post an answer. Registration is usually free and takes less than five minutes. I recommend these sites to get you started:
- www.techsupportforum.com – Forums include security, software, operating systems, hardware, networking, web design, and more.
- www.tek-tips.com – Forums include Avaya IP, Cisco, Nortel, Mitel, as well as software, graphics, programming, PC hardware, and more.
- www.techrepublic.com – Forums include networking, software, operating systems, security, project management, careers, and more.
You can Benefit by Displaying Your Expertise
Not only can you help your peers by sharing your knowledge and experience with them, but you can also benefit personally in several ways:
- By developing your reputation as an expert in a particular area, readers will, in time, seek your advice and possibly extend additional writing opportunities to you.
- Networking with peers in other companies and around the world opens a new learning environment. This could lead to invitations to participate in unique projects and ventures.
- Being known as an expert adds credibility to your reputation. This could enhance your career path within your own organization and create career opportunities elsewhere.
Is it time for you to take an active role in social media discussions? If you want to display your expertise and establish a following, then become an active contributor in this worldwide online community. Whether your motives are purely altruistic or to gain personal recognition for career advancement, displaying your technical expertise and connecting with like-minded people is exhilarating and will produce positive results for you.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 16 February , 2010
Focus on Your Strengths - Delegate Everything Else
The road to success and happiness is well travelled by those who know how to apply their strengths to their life and work. If you focus your efforts on your areas of strength and delegate activities to your staff in their areas of strength, you too can travel this road.
What is a strength?
Authors Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton in their book Now, Discover Your Strengths define a strength as “a consistent near perfect performance in any activity.”
They offer Bill Gates as an example of someone who recognizes that one of his strengths is taking innovations and turning them into user friendly applications. The ability to build and maintain an enterprise in the face of legal and commercial assaults was not Gates forte. Fortunately, Steve Ballmer, Gates’ partner, did have strength in this area. Microsoft products have become ubiquitous around the world, in part, because both men focused on their individual strengths.
Recognizing strengths
What are your strengths (and the strengths of your staff)? You probably already have a good idea! What activities do you perform with consistently outstanding results? Usually it’s what you enjoy, if not your passion. Do you excel at managing projects, working with people, or resolving technical issues? Are you great at meticulously reviewing invoices, writing and updating SOPs, or training and development?
Take a few minutes today to mentally inventory your strengths. John Maxwell, author, speaker, and one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership, recommends the following formula:
• Focus 70% on your strengths
• Focus 25% on new things
• Focus 5% on your weaknesses (Delegate)
The benefits for focusing on your strengths
• Makes better use of your time – Don’t waste your time doing a task your staff can do better. You get more done in less time if you play to your strength and concentration on priorities.
• Develops and encourages your team – Delegating to staff’s strengths encourages them, improves their skills, creates a team attitude, and increases your effectiveness as a leader.
• Inspires excellence rather than competence – Focusing on your strength allows you do what you do with excellence rather than settling for mediocrity in activities where your performance and results may be weaker.
• Reduces stress – When you delegate everything from special projects to routine responsibilities to the strongest person (btw, this could be you!), it will be completed by the most capable person.
As a manager, you have to maintain competency in many areas that may not be your strengths. I know that staff evaluations, yearly budgets, invoice approval, etc. requires a manager’s attention. Don”t ignore those areas, but not everything has to be done by the department head. When you focus on your strengths, you will be a few miles farther down the road to success.
-Mike
The copyright of this article is owned by Mike Mitchell. Permission to republish the complete article, in print or online, is granted providing the author is notified prior to republishing and proper credit accompanies the article.
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 2 February , 2010
Action vs. Activity
When was the last time you could say of someone, “He’s a man of action” or “She gets results?” More importantly, when was the last time someone could say that of you?
Taking Action
According to Organization and Time Management Consultant Mark Forster, people often confuse activity with action. As Forster explains the concept, “taking action,” will help us achieve your goals and produce results that improve your systems and level of service for your company and customers.
Taking action involves planning, organizing, and making decisions – mental processes that could be perceived as inactivity. So often we stay busy with activities such as returning emails, attending meetings, and handling routine responsibilities, that we miss the opportunity to create meaningful change.
Doing Activities
Take a minute and evaluate your daily routine. Are you taking action or merely filling your day with activities? Granted, there are some routine tasks that have to be done. For instance, activities like compiling a report for the boss, reviewing the staff’s daily time, or evaluating new products or procedures are a necessity. We do feel good when we’ve completed our tasks, but these are not really accomplishments.
Unfortunately, activity is sometimes perceived as getting things done, but ultimately the lack of real accomplishments will become evident. So often, activity is the thing that fills our daily working hours. It’s easy to be very busy and not achieve our goals.
The Activity Trap
Forster gives us the following guidelines to determine if we fall into what he calls the “the activity trap:”
- You never have time to think – thinking should your top priority action.
- You work through lunch and don’t have a definite finish time in the evening – Lack of proper breaks reduces your working efficiency.
- You don’t have time to exercise – lack of exercise reduces your working efficiency and shortens your life span.
- You don’t have time for a personal life – if your personal life isn’t a top priority for you, what are the chances that the rest of your priorities make sense?
- You never have time to do the things you really want to do – then, what’s the point of all your hard work?
- You are constantly doing things that anyone else could do – You should be concentrating on the thing that only you could do.
Evaluate and Achieve
Why not take the time tomorrow to honestly evaluate what you do every day? Is it activity or action? Activity is sometimes exciting, but almost always exhausting, stressful, and disappointing when we realize we haven’t accomplished our goals. Action, however, creates energy, inspires enthusiasm, and gives us satisfaction when we achieve our most important goals.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 15 January , 2010
I Need Help with My Presentation
Challenge: I have to give a presentation to a user group but I’ve never done anything like this before. Can you give me any advice fast?
Answer: During my 20 years of teaching and speaking, I’ve identified four principles for giving effective presentations. These principles have helped me to make effective presentations with clarity and confidence in classroom, boardroom, and platform environments. I know they will help you too!
• Know your Objective:
What do you want to accomplish? Depending on your subject and the type of user group, you should focus on one of the following four presentation objectives:
o Informing – providing new information to a group familiar with your subject
o Instructing – teaching new information, processes, or procedures to your group
o Inspiring – encouraging and uplifting your group creating a call to action
o Influencing – passionately expressing your perspective to your group for purpose of changing their thinking
• Know your Subject:
Become as knowledgeable as possible about your subject. Think of questions your audience might ask if you have a Q & A session. Then be ready to respond. Remember, you don’t have to know everything. If someone asks a question you can’t answer, offer to follow-up via email or telephone call with an answer. Keep to the relevant facts.
• Know your Audience:
Find out how knowledgeable your audience is about your subject. This will determine how you approach your presentation. Aim your talk at the general level of knowledge of the audience. Think about what you would want to know if you were the typical audience member.
• Know Yourself and your Capability:
Be confident in your subject knowledge and preparation. If you speak softly, use a microphone. If you feel the need to use notes, make sure they’re legible and highlight your major talking points. Practice your presentation so you can speak from your notes, not read from your notes. Make sure your presentation fits within the time allocated. Practice your presentation until you’re totally comfortable giving your presentation.
It’s OK to be a little nervous before and during your talk. That’s natural and helps keep you focused. Each time you practice your presentation, you’ll become a more confident with your ability and comfortable in your delivery. If you keep your presentation concise and relevant, the audience will appreciate your effort and preparation. Good luck with your presentation.
To get a more detailed look at a wide variety of presentations skills, I recommended reading Karen Berg’s clearly written book Loud & Clear.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 2 January , 2010
Increase Your Productivity with Daily Personal Time
Do you know your most productive hours during the day? A May 2005 survey of US workers for Careerwomen.com, published on MBACareers.com, found that Tuesday mornings between 10 am and noon are considered to be the height of productivity. Interestingly, a survey of British workers conducted by the health supplement company, Bimuno, published in Telegraph.co.uk, found that Tuesday mornings at 11:45 am is the most stressful time of the workweek. Is there a correlation between the two surveys apparent contradiction?
Employees respond to workload and stress level
I believe the survey results point to a heightened level of employee productivity on Tuesday to compensate for the workload which wasn’t completed on Monday (which increased both productivity and stress). Tuesday becomes the day to catch up and get back on track for the rest of the week. The Bimuno survey also notes that one in five workers leave the office late on Tuesday as they work extra hours to make up for poor performance on Monday.
3 Tips to Help You Avoid Workload Stress
• Determine your most productive time of the day
You should have a good idea when you are the most alert, energized, and able to focus on a task. For many of my friends it’s the early morning hours. Some of them have even modified their work schedules to come in an hour earlier to take advantage of their morning energy. Other people, the night owls, choose to come in later and stay longer in the afternoon to take advantage of the calm after the chaos of the day has diminished.
• Set aside at least one hour during your most productive time for yourself each day
Close your office door if possible. Ask your staff, co-workers and boss to respect your privacy during this one hour. Use this personal time to write detailed reports, review weekly staff schedule, complete employee evaluations, and other tasks requiring your undivided attention. Resist the temptation to check email or answer your telephone (calls from your boss could be an exception.)
• Set a specific time each day for “office hours”
Let your staff and co-workers know that this time is set aside specifically for them. You will answer their questions by email or telephone, collaborate on their projects, or discuss their personnel concerns. You could establish one hour in the afternoon or a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the afternoon. Plan the number of hours and time for the convenience of your staff but not during your most productive hours of day.
Get more done in less time by planning your day
We’ve all heard Parkinson’s Law that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” If you plan your day wisely, you can have one hour for yourself, one hour for your staff, and still have six hours for routine tasks, project analysis, vendor meetings, or whatever needs to be done. With proper planning, you can accomplish more in less time with less stress.
Post a comment letting us know your most productive hours of the day. Thanks.
-Mike
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Posted by Mike Mitchell at 15 December , 2009
Communicating Without Words
Creating an Positive Impression
Recently I had the opportunity to visit with a technical manager for a growing telecom company in Atlanta. As I entered his office I noticed he had three framed Cisco certifications neatly mounted on the wall. On the wall across from his desk was a white board. In the silver tray at the bottom of the board there were several different color markers that actually worked (yes, I checked) and an ‘official’ eraser.
A framed Dilbert cartoon hung on the adjacent wall next to a straw Panama hat that represented the company’s current sales initiative. On top of his credenza sat a neatly organized row of Cisco certification course manuals. On his desk, just to the right of his computer monitor, was a stack of neatly organized papers.
Communicating without Words
Later that day, as I replayed the events of our meeting, my thoughts turned to what he had communicated to me about himself without saying a single word. During our conversation he had confirmed my positive first impression. He was organized but not fanatical, neat but not obsessively so, supportive of his company but not to the point of clutter, and had a sense of humor but was serious when appropriate.
You’re Judged by the Office You Keep
If the CEO of your company walked into your office, what would be his perception of you? Have you ever taken an objective look at your office or work area? Is it well organized (or at least a mostly organized) and reflective of person in control of his or her environment? What does it communicate about your ability to manage projects, processes, or people? What impression does it give your coworkers, staff, and visitors?
One exercise I’ve done to take an objective and honest look at my office is sit in one of the chairs where a visitor would sit and look around the room. The first time I did this, I was shocked. There was dust on my computer monitor (which I could not see sitting behind my desk). The three sloppy stacks of papers on my credenza were distracting. There were also two disorganized piles of papers on the side of my desk including a vendor proposal, contracts to be reviewed, an equipment inventory printout, and three industry magazines from last month.
Conquering Chaos
Being neat is not necessarily the same as being organized, but having a neat office and desk gives the impression of being in control of your environment and yourself.
Harriet Schechter, author of Conquering Chaos at Work, gives the following six points to determine if you are an organized person at work:
- You live by the motto, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
- You use a time management system to plan your daily schedule and to do list.
- You straighten up your desk at the end of the every day.
- You are on time for appointments and meetings.
- You don’t let piles of paper grow on, or in, your desk.
- You rarely spend time looking for misplaced papers or supplies.
First impressions are lasting impressions. Make sure you give visitors to your office a positive impression so that even without words, they may perceive you as organized individual who is firmly in control of your environment and yourself.
- Mike
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